The invention relates to a condenser for an air conditioning system, in particular for a motor vehicle.
Condensers are components of a coolant circuit for an air conditioning system, the condenser in air conditioning systems for motor vehicles often being arranged and mounted in the front region of the engine cavity together with a coolant radiator. Condensers are known as cross flow condensers, i.e. with coolant pipes which are arranged horizontally and through which coolant flows, as well as drop flow condensers with coolant pipes which are arranged vertically and through which coolant flows. Both types of condensers are known from EP-A-769 666. Condensers have manifold pipes in which the coolant pipes open, the manifold pipes being divided by separating walls in order to bring about a multi-current, meandering flow of coolant through the condenser. The condenser is generally composed of a condensation section and a lower cooling section in which coolant which is already liquefied is cooled below the condensation temperature. The condenser is assigned a manifold which is arranged parallel to one of the manifold pipes and communicates on the coolant side with the manifold pipe. The manifold accommodates a filter device and/or drying device and has, inter alia, the function of separating the gaseous and liquid phases of the coolant so that as far as possible only liquid coolant is fed to the lower cooling section of the condenser. For cross flow condensers this task has already been solved in many ways, specifically by means of vertically arranged manifolds in which the liquid phase of the coolant collects at the bottom owing to the difference in density and the gaseous phase of the coolant rises into the upper region of the manifold. In the case of drop flow condensers the problem of phase separation cannot be solved in an analogous way—in EP-A 769 666, for example, a vertically arranged manifold with horizontally arranged manifold pipes has been proposed for a drop flow condenser (exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 7). This solution clearly takes up considerable installation space, in particular in the direction of airflow, i.e. the direction of travel of the vehicle.
In the earlier patent application by the applicant DE 103 15 374, whose disclosure content is part of the content of the present application documents, a drop flow condenser, i.e. one with vertically arranged coolant pipes (referred to as through-flow devices) and horizontally arranged manifold pipes with an integrated manifold at the bottom is disclosed. The manifold has an inflow chamber with an inflow opening and an outflow chamber with an outflow opening, a separating device being provided in both chambers, between the inflow and outflow openings, and having an overflow opening for liquid coolant in its region which is located geodetically at the bottom. The gaseous phase of the coolant is essentially in the upper half of the manifold, i.e. in the region which is located geodetically higher, thus separating the two phases.